Sydney Trains drivers are off the rails with inefficiency

A TRANSPORT for NSW “performance update” showed Sydney Trains lagged terribly behind Europe and North America in driver efficiency.

How the productivity stacks up.

• Sydney Trains network to be controlled from a central engine room, costing $276 million
• Transport for NSW: Actors paid to rile rail staffers

DRIVERS on Sydney Trains are among the most inefficient in the world, working just 18 minutes of every hour.

A Transport for NSW “performance update” showed Sydney Trains lagged terribly behind Europe and North America in driver efficiency, where their staff were actually driving trains more than 30 minutes in the hour.

Drivers in Asia also spent more time at the controls, with an efficiency rate just under 50 per cent.

A new report claims train drivers only work 18 minutes for every hour of their shift.

Australia’s peak policy body for infrastructure wants the Rail, Tram and Bus Union to relax its stance on split shifts, part-time drivers, and variable shift lengths to reduce the time drivers spent “sitting around in rooms” between or on shifts.

“The RTBU needs to realise the game is up,” Infrastructure Partnerships Australia chief executive Brendan Lyon said. “It’s just not sustainable to run a 19th century industrial relations system.”

Train drivers in Sydney take home $40 an hour, enjoy five weeks annual leave and get paid extra to work on NRL Grand Final day.

But Mr Lyon pointed the finger at a “public monopoly” of the Sydney Trains network, rather than the drivers themselves.

“This is not about the drivers ... we’re not talking having about less drivers or less jobs,” he said. “But we have to change the delivery model, every person you see on the train costs $11.50 in public subsidy.

Train drivers in Sydney take home $40 an hour.

“What drives that cost is the allocation of the workforce which operates it.

“We don’t have endless amounts of cash ... we don’t have a second electricity network to sell.”

He wants the tracks and trains to remain in public hands, while private companies compete for the management of them.

“You’d change the person doing the rostering,” Mr Lyon said. “That way, if the network is inefficient or doesn’t run on time the operator can be slapped with a great big fine.

“And they’ll be trying to run it better and faster to re-win the contract.”

He said similar private involvement had improved the service of Sydney Ferries.

The RTBU last month slammed accusations rail staff were inefficient, as ridiculous and misleading.

“To suggest that we’re sitting around doing nothing is not only completely untrue, but also incredibly offensive to the state’s hardworking and dedicated crew,” the union’s NSW secretary Alex Claassens said.